“Do you have to use that language?”
“Yes.”
“Is there anything else to this movie?”
“Why don’t you see it for yourself? I’m sure it’s out on video.”
Wallander felt like an idiot. He should have thought of this himself. He could have simply rented the movie without bothering Linda.
“I’m sorry I bothered you,” he said.
Her anger had passed.
“It’s okay. But I do have to go now.”
“I know. Good-bye.”
He put the receiver down and the phone rang immediately. He lifted it again with trepidation, fearing a journalist on the other end.
At first he didn’t recognize the voice. Then he realized it was Siv Eriksson.
“I hope I’m not catching you in the middle of something,” she said.
“Not at all.”
“I’ve been thinking. I’ve been trying to find something that could help you.”
Invite me over, Wallander thought. If you really want to help me. I’m hungry and thirsty and I don’t want to sit in this damned apartment any longer.
“And did you think of anything in particular?”
“Not really. I guess his wife is probably the only one who really knew him. Or maybe his kids.”
Wallander waited to see if she would say anything else.
“I have one memory of him that stands out as unusual. It isn’t much. We only knew each other a few years.”
“Tell me.”
“It was two years ago, in October or the beginning of November. He came here one evening and was very upset. He couldn’t hide it. We had a project due, I think it was something for the county. We had a deadline, but I saw that he was very upset and I asked him about it. He said he had just seen some teenagers accost an older man who had been a little drunk. When the man tried to brush them away, they hit him. He fell down and they kicked him as he was lying there on the sidewalk.”
“Was that it?”
“Yes.”
Wallander thought about it. Tynnes Falk had reacted strongly when a person was the victim of violence. It was interesting, but he couldn’t immediately fit it into the case.
“Did he try to intervene in any way?”
“No. It just enraged him.”
“What did he say?”
“That the world was chaos. That nothing was worth it anymore.”
“What was it that wasn’t worth it?”
“I don’t know. I had a feeling he meant that mankind wasn’t worth it any longer. That our animal nature was taking over, or something like that. When I tried to ask him about it he cut me off. We never talked about it again.”
“How did you interpret his reaction?”
“I felt it was quite natural. Wouldn’t you have felt that way?” Maybe, Wallander thought. But I wonder if I would have concluded that the world is in chaos.
For some reason Wallander wanted to keep her on the line. But she was bound to see through him.
“I’m glad you called,” he said. “Please call me again if you think of anything else. I’ll probably call you myself tomorrow.”
“I’m doing some programming for a restaurant chain. I’ll be in the office all day.”
“I’m curious. What will happen with your other projects now?”
“I don’t know. I just hope I have enough of a reputation now to survive without Tynnes. If not, I’ll have to think of something else.”
“Like what?”
She laughed.
“Do you need this information for the case?”
“No, I was just asking.”
“I might take off and see the world.”
Everyone goes away, Wallander thought. In the end it will just be me and all the misfits left.
“I’ve had thoughts like that myself,” he said. “But I’m locked in, like most people.”
“I’m not locked in,” she said cheerfully. “I’m my own woman.”
After the conversation was over, Wallander thought about what she had said. I’m my own woman. She had a point. Just as Per Akeson and Sten Widen had been right in their ways.
Suddenly he felt very pleased with himself for having sent in the ad to the dating service. Even though he wasn’t expecting an answer, he had done something.
He put on his coat and went to the video store that was closest to his house, on Stora Ostergatan. When he got there, it turned out the store closed at nine o’clock on Sundays. He continued up toward the main square, stopping from time to time to look in store windows.
Where the feeling came from he couldn’t say, but suddenly he turned around. No one was there, apart from some teenagers and a security guard. He thought about what Hoglund had said about being careful.
I’m imagining things, he thought. No one is stupid enough to attack the same police officer twice in a row.
Once he got to the main square, he turned down Hamngatan and then took Osterleden home. The air was crisp. It felt good to be out.
He was back in his apartment at a quarter past ten. He found a solitary can of beer in the fridge and made some sandwiches. Then he sat down in front of the television and watched a discussion about the Swedish economy. The only thing he got out of the program was that the economy was both good and faltering. He nodded off and looked forward to finally getting an undisturbed night’s sleep.
The case was going to have to get along without him for a few hours.
He turned out the light and went to bed at half-past eleven.
He had just fallen asleep when the phone rang.
He counted out nine rings before they finally stopped. Then he pulled the cord out of the jack and waited. Any of his colleagues would try his cell phone. He hoped that wouldn’t happen.
The cell phone on his nightstand rang.
It was the patrol officer stationed outside Falk’s apartment on Apelbergsgatan. His name was Elofsson.
“I don’t know how important this is,” he said. “But a car has been by here several times in the last hour.”
“Did you see the driver?”
“That’s why I’m calling, actually. You remember the orders you gave us.
Wallander waited impatiently.
“I think he looked Asian,” Elofsson continued. “But I can’t be totally sure.”
Wallander didn’t hesitate. The peaceful night he had been looking forward to was already ruined.
“I’ll be there.”
He hung up the phone and looked at the time.
It was one minute past midnight.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Wallander turned off the Malmö highway.
Then he drove past Apelbergsgatan and parked his car on Jörgen Krabbes Way. It took him about five minutes to walk from there to the apartment building where Falk had lived. The wind was completely gone. There were no clouds in the sky and it was gradually getting chillier. October in Ystad was always a month that had trouble making up its mind.
The undercover car with Elofsson and his colleague inside was parked across the way and about half a block down from Falk’s house. When Wallander reached the car, the back door was opened for him and he climbed in. There was a pleasant smell of coffee in the air. Wallander thought of all the nights he had spent in cars like this one, fighting the urge to sleep, fighting the cold.
They said hello and exchanged some casual remarks. Elofsson’s colleague had only been in Ystad for about six months. His name was El Sayed and he had come originally from Tunisia. He was the first policeman with an immigrant background who had ever worked in Ystad. Wallander had been worried that El Sayed would be greeted with hostility and prejudice. He had no illusions about what his colleagues thought of getting a non-white recruit. His fears had been justified, as it turned out. El Sayed had to deal with his share of crude jokes and mean-spirited comments. How much of it he noticed and what he had been expecting, Wallander was still not sure. Sometimes he felt bad that he had never taken the time to invite El Sayed over for a meal. No one else had done so, either. But after a while the young man and his easygoing personality had grown on them, and he was slowly becoming part of the group.